Five things you should do to prepare your home for winter

For most homes, the ‘heating season’ runs from October to March/April. Though we’ve seen that people start asking the question “when should I put my heating on?” from around September.

The heating season is the period where you need to heat your home on a regular daily basis. As you might expect, this coincides with the colder months. Many people may switch on the heating at times before then depending on the weather and required comfort levels.

If you’re able to get your house ready beforehand, you’ll be ready to reap the benefit when the weather does get colder.

Whether it’s larger jobs like insulation or quick and cheap fixes, here are our everyday experts’ top tips for getting your home ready for winter.

1. Insulate your home
2. Draught proof your windows and doors
3. Insulate your pipes and hot water tank
4. Set your heating controls
5. Check your boiler

Depending on the steps you want to take, you may be able to do some of the work yourself.

Big insulation projects, like cavity wall insulation, should be done by an experienced professional or organisation. Our insulation guides have information on how to find an installer.

But for tasks like draught-proofing, you may be able to do it yourself. If you’re not a fan of DIY, you can hire a professional. It’ll cost more, but you’re likely to save more energy as a professional installer will know what materials to use and where to use them.

However, if you know what you’re doing, here’s a list of quick DIY jobs to save energy around your home.

Installing insulation is an effective way of keeping your home warm and saving money on your energy bills by reducing heat loss. Depending on where you live, you may be able to get money towards the cost of installation too.

There are a few different types of insulation depending on the type of home you have.

• Cavity wall insulation: this is where an installer injects insulation material into the cavity from the outside.
• Solid wall insulation: if your walls aren’t cavity walls, then there are different ways to install solid wall insulation.
• Floor insulation: if you have a suspended timber ground floor, you can install insulation material to reduce heat loss.
• Roof and loft insulation: if your home is uninsulated, you could be losing around 25% of heat through your roof. Roof and loft insulation can help reduce this.

The cost of installing insulation will vary depending on the size of your home and the type of insulation that you need.

For example, getting cavity wall insulation installed can cost around £2,700.

Compare this to adding insulation to external solid walls, which can cost £18,000.

How much installing insulation saves on energy bills can vary too:

*This is where you install 270mm of loft insulation to a totally uninsulated loft.

You might be able to get funding or grants for insulation. Find financial support for energy efficiency in your area.

Draught-proofing involves blocking unwanted gaps to keep warm air in your home and cold air out. If you have modern windows and doors with seals on the openings, then they might already be draught proofed enough. But old doors and windows may not be. 

If you draught-proof your windows and doors, you can save £40 a year in GB and £40 in NI on your energy bills.

You shouldn’t seal any trickle vents, ventilation grilles or wall vents. These are designed to let in a small amounts of air into your rooms for ventilation.

For more information, read our guide on draught proofing.

 If your home is already fairly well draught proofed, adding more draught proofing may increase the risk of poor air quality. If in doubt, check with a professional.  For more information, read our guide on ventilation.

It might be a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ but insulating your hot water tank and water pipes can save you money.

By installing pipe insulation to exposed hot water pipes in your home, you can reduce the heat lost while transferring water. This means you can save around £6 a year in GB and £5 in NI.

It also helps reduce the risk of your water pipes cracking or bursting if the temperature drops below freezing (especially if they’re outdoors).

Have a water tank? Topping up its jacket from 25mm to an 80mm British Standard jacket can save £40 a year in GB and £35 in NI. A jacket costs around £18, so it’ll soon pay for itself.

Read more about insulating tanks, pipes and radiators.

So far, we’ve covered reducing heat loss through insulation. But your heating controls also play an important part when it comes to heating your home during winter.

A programmer lets you set the time you want your heating to come on and go off. This helps you heat your home when you need it and avoid wasting energy when it’s not needed.

For example: you can set your heating to come in early in the morning ready for when you get up. You can then set it to go off when you’re out of the house.

If you team this up with a thermostat, you can automatically turn the heating off when it reaches a certain temperature. A thermostat should be the lowest comfortable temperature for your needs; for most people, that’s between 18°C and 21°C.

Thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) control the flow of hot water through a radiator, opening when the room temperature is too low and closing when it’s too high. This helps keep the room at a consistent temperature.

You can also switch them off completely in rooms that you don’t need to heat, saving more money again. You can easily adjust a TRV to your needs by opening or closing the valve.

By taking control of your heating and installing all three, you can save £110 a year in GB and £110 in NI.

Don’t have heating controls installed? Read our heating controls guide to find out what types are available.

As  the temperatures fall, people start to turn their heating on. If you don’t have heating controls, you might have switched your heating off during the summer.

The last thing you want is to switch your heating on during a cold snap only to find it’s broken down. Therefore, we advise checking your boiler and heating now. You should also think about getting a boiler service booked in if you haven’t already had a service this year.

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